Girls of Sky and Sea
by Wernher von Braun
Summary: The war with the Neuroi took a new turn when the Abyssal appeared and terrorize the sea. With the navy and the Witches being ineffective against the Abyssal, humanity turned towards them; they who have fought with them since the beginning but never known...until now.
1. Different Solution

**Different Solution**

Neuroi

They are alien race that appeared during two periods known as First Neuroi War and Second Neuroi War. However, evidences suggest that Neuroi might exist far before the first war happened.

The Neuroi and the humanity have been at constant war with each other every time they met. No single word, no single action need to be done, both sides will 100% fight each other until the last drop of blood.

The biggest problem that humanity have is while they can defeat the Neuroi, the latter have a much easier time defeating the former. Their land forces make them a slow-moving juggernaut that will require a massive number of casualties to be paid just to defeat them. Their air forces give them dominance on the sky the moment they're deployed and again require massive casualties to be beaten.

Thanks to these, the Neuroi managed to drive the human off almost the entire western Europe with Britannia being the last western European nation that the Neuroi haven't conquered yet. To make matter worse, the Neuroi are pushing towards eastern Europe and Africa.

Fortunately, the humanity is everything but hopeless.

Since the First Neuroi War, humanity have used special females known as "Witches" to combat the Neuroi. With their special ability to create magical shield and other abilities, the witches managed to prevent humanity from sustaining complete loses during both wars.

During the early part of the Second Neuroi War, Doctor Miyafuji Ichiro revolutionized the Striker Units – devices used by Witches to increased their effectiveness – and further increased the chances of humanity's survival. Alas, he was declared dead by being caught in an accidental explosion.

The works of Dr. Miyafuji however are not dead along with him. They're used to further increase the effectiveness of the Striker Units. It was thanks to these that humanity managed to stood still against the Neuroi.

Just like humanity however, the Neuroi also try to increase the effectiveness of their armed forces.

After the Fuso Sea Incident of 1937, the Neuroi were seen to be dropping something into the Pacific Ocean. Since they keep doing these things without any effect, the Allied forces decided to just watched the Neuroi and only move in when a threat is presence.

It finally came.

On December 7, 1941, a day which will live in infamy at the minds of the Liberion, mysterious forces attacked the US Navy base of Pearl Harbor, resulting in the death of 2,403 personnel and the loss of USS _Arizona_ , USS _Oklahoma_ , and USS _Utah_.

Video recording, photos, and eyewitness accounts indicated that the attack were performed by aircrafts only bigger than the palm of adult human. The shape and type of aircrafts are also never seen before. Only few days after the attack, the Neuroi stop appearing in the Pacific. This indicated who was responsible for an attack on Pearl Harbor.

For years to come, the Pacific becomes almost one-sided battles for humanity. HMS _Prince of Wales_ and HMS _Repulse_ of the Britannian Royal Navy were sunk by the same forces. The Battle of Coral Sea – if it can be called one – resulted in the sufficient loses of the combined forces of US Navy and Imperial Fuso Navy. It was only during the Battle of Midway that the Allied forces finally found out who their enemy at the Pacific and the first victory for them.

They were composed of humanoid-sized beings, ball-shaped floating things, and gigantic-sized fishes (for ordinary fish at least). The rest are just plain bizarre. Reports show that they act and even used naval ships tactic. The fishes act like destroyers while the humanoids act like bigger ships like battleships or aircraft carriers.

Just like the Neuroi, human-created weapons can harm and even destroyed these mysterious forces, codename the Abyssal. There are just two problems; the Abyssal are always encountered at water regions with the oceans being the most prominent and they are too small for normal naval guns to precisely aim them.

To make things worse, just like usual, the Abyssal weapons are downsized version of naval weapons in terms of size and firepower. The latter can make things better if not for the fact that the weapons are still capable of penetrating even a battleship armor, albeit requiring more shots.

Unlike when used against the Neuroi, the Witches are less effective in fighting the Abyssal. The biggest recorded Abyssal are only slightly larger than average human, meaning less place for a shot to hit. There's also the fact that the skin of Abyssal renders most weapon ineffective unless used to shoot the faces of humanoid Abyssals, which is _way_ harder than finding a Neuroi core. The only promising weapons are anti-tank rifles, rocket launchers, and M2 Browning machine gun due to its .50 BMG bullets.

Another problem is the Abyssal aircrafts. Since the Witches are flying when attacking the Abyssal, the aircrafts have a significant advantaged of their small size, making hitting them quite hard, and the Witches often used their shields to defend themselves. The fact that they spend most of the time defending rather than attacking doesn't bode well for everyone.

With these, humanity stood little chance against the Abyssal.

Until now…

* * *

 **Classified Location**

A man puts a cup of coffee in front of a woman and offers it to her. The woman accepts the coffer and slurps a little bit before looking at the man.

"Thanks for the coffee, Bill." Said the woman.

"I am surprised. I thought you will call me Bull, just like what those boys called me." Replied Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr.

"So is it true?" Asked Admiral Bruce Austin Fraser.

"Do you have any other explanation?" Asked the woman back.

"Well, sorry ma'am. It just sounds quite unbelievable." Said Admiral Chester William Nimitz.

"Actually, it's not that unbelievable." Said Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. "In Fuso, there's a belief that when an object reach the age of a hundred, it will be inhibited by a soul. Granted, she's only few years old but the point still stand."

"Alright, enough of that talk. So, is there a way to call more of the girls?" Asked Halsey.

"There is, Admiral. However, while the process is not hard, it can be quite delicate and anyone who meet them for the first time must prepare for everything since it can be quite hard to predict what kind of personality they will have." Answered the girl.

"Yeah, I can think of a reason or two." Commented Nimitz.

"Then what are we waiting for, gentlemen? The more time we waste talking is more time for the Abyssal to take over the Pacific. I am sure we can handle whatever personality they will have. Just look at the Witches." Said Fraser.

The woman stands up to grab her white sun hat and tidies up her blue dress before looking at Fraser with deadpanned look.

"I have a _very_ good feeling that you will eat back yours words a hundred times." Said the woman with the other admirals silently agreeing.

* * *

 **Taranto, Duchy of Romagna**

At the port of Taranto, Squadron Vice Admiral Inigo Campioni is fighting a headache that's about to come at any moment.

He's currently inside a mess hall as he looks at the drunken state of a woman with another woman besides her. The sober one has an apologizing and ashamed look thanks to the behavior of the woman besides her which is her sister.

"Buona giornata (Good day)!" Said the drunken woman as she lazily waves her hand.

"Sis…" Said the other woman with dejected tone.

If there's one thing Campioni is sure he will do after this, is that giving punishment to the entire crew of heavy cruiser _Pola_.

* * *

 **Yokosuka, Empire of Fuso**

"Ha, do you see that?! Now who said that CarDiv 5 can't beat the CarDiv 1? Huh?!" Said a twin-tailed woman in Fusoan archery clothes.

"Your results are mostly because of luck, unlike the CarDiv 1 that rely on skill." Replied a woman in same clothes albeit blue.

"What did you said?!"

Meanwhile, several Fuso sailors are looking at the scene with dumbfounded.

"Of all thing we forgot is the rivalry between those two CarDivs." Commented a sailor.

"Well, at least the other two aren't fighting and focused on something else." Said another sailor.

He refers to the sister of the twin-tailed woman as she keeps practicing her archery and a woman in red Fusoan archery clothes who's eating a large amount of rice balls.

* * *

 **Pacific Ocean**

Inside the navigation section of USS _Skipjack_ , several sailors are currently checking the navigation devices to make sure they're on a right track.

"So, how long do you think until we reach the land?" Asked a sailor.

"Maybe a day or two, probie. Not exactly long." Replied another sailor.

Just then, they hear two people are running towards the room. When they see who do that, they see a woman in swimming suit while also wearing a pants and a captain who's chasing her…without his pants.

"Get back here with my pants!" Shouted the captain.

"I don't wear your pants!" Replied the woman as both of them passed the navigation room.

"Yes, you are!"

As both of them disappear from the sailors' eyes, the two sailors look at each other with incredulous look.

"Skip and captain again, huh?"

"Yeah. I told you it was a bad idea to call her when we still at the sea."

* * *

 **And the prologue is done.**

 **Can you guess who are the women that appeared in this chapter?**

 **If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.**

 **Review please.**


	2. Changes with Budget

**Changes with Budget**

 **1942**

 **Atlantic Ocean**

At the sky of the Atlantic, two witches of the 508th Joint Fighter Wing "Mighty Witches", Delia M. Jeram and Cecilia E. Harris were doing their usual patrol. While the Neuroi and the Abyssal were usually not seen in the Atlantic, they were still a threat to the Atlantic Convoys; vital for the survival of the remaining European countries.

"Well, if things continue like this, this is going to be the third day without any sighting of the hostile." Stated Cecilia.

"And yet we still lost several ships." Replied Delia.

"Must be the Abyssal submarines. They're hard to track and even harder to be taken out."

While the Witches were quite an effective solution against the Neuroi, not so much against the Abyssal. Not only the submarines, but also the surface ships. The Abyssal were obviously weaker than normal ships, but they were still mostly invulnerable to conventional firearms. It required something close to anti-tank weapons to destroy them.

Suddenly, a laser beam approached them. Both witches avoided it and looked at the source. It was a Neuroi that took a shape of flying saucer. It fired another beam. Delia went towards it and raised her shield. Meanwhile, Cecilia flied towards the Neuroi's flank.

Sensing her coming, the Neuroi began to fly in disarray while keep shooting. Both Delia and Cecilia managed to either avoid or block the shots with their shields. After several shots, the witches found the core and immediately shoot it. With its core destroyed, the Neuroi became shards as usual.

"Well, that's one for the record." Said Cecilia.

"But what's that lone Neuroi doing here? It doesn't match any of their behavior." Stated Delia.

"Maybe…"

Before she could finish her words, both Cecilia and Delia heard weapons being fired on them. They immediately raised their shields and found out that the weapons fired mini bullets. It was at that exact moment that the witches knew who shot them.

The Abyssal.

Both of them look around the sky and saw the Abyssal fighter planes. They keep their shields raised and started to fly back to the carriers.

"[COMMS] This is Flying Officer Cecilia E. Harris. We encountered several Abyssal fighter planes. Possible type Abyssal Fighter Mk. I. Requesting immediate assistance."

"[COMMS] Copy that, Flying Officer Harris. Be advised, several F4F-3s will arrive ETA 2 minutes."

"[COMMS] Copy that, Enterprise. Though it will be earlier considering we're approaching the fleet."

The witches keep their pace towards the fleet as the Abyssal Fighters keep shooting at them. Not a minute and half later, several of the Fighters got destroyed. The Abyssal Fighters diverted their attention towards the incoming small F4F-3s. Both type of planes shared similar size.

As both fighter planes fought each other, Cecilia and Delia – while still flying to the fleet – slowed down and catch some breath.

"That was a close one." Said Cecilia.

"So far, looks like the tactic 'Witches take care of Neuroi, Ship Girls take care of Abyssal' works." Said Delia.

"Well, I guess I can agree with you." Cecilia let out a sigh.

"Something wrong?"

"As you know, we tend to have problems with several higher-ups and politicians since they don't like the fact that women served in the frontlines, almost exclusively depended on witches, or combination of both. But Ship Girls…man, I envy them."

"In a way, it makes sense. Almost all higher-ups from all branches referred ships as 'she'. For them, it's almost expected that if ship ever have personification, it will be female. Doing the…'usual' will make them look like hypocrites and laughing stocks among their rivals."

"Is the last part true? Can't see that happening."

"I don't know. Sometimes I just throw around some words."

After several minutes, the two of them could see the USS _Enterprise_ , HMS _Victorious_ , _Shōkaku_ , and their escort ships. Both of them approached _Enterprise_ , the closest carrier for them. After receiving the permission to land, they landed on her runway.

As they walked away from their strikers, letting the engineers do their works, they heard someone was approaching them. When they looked at the approaching individual, they saw a girl with blonde hair and red eyes. She was wearing a white shirt that didn't reach her waist, leaving her navel opened, white skirt, and a white naval peaked cap.

"So, how're you girls doing?" Asked the girl.

"Fine. And cut that out, E. You're very bad when trying to talk like a sailor. I am not even sure that can be count as one." Replied Cecilia.

The girl, E, better known as Enterprise, pouted a bit and scratched her head.

"Well, I spend most of my live with hundreds of sailors talking like sailor and I can't even do that. It's kind of hurt, you know."

"Does Admiral Halsey even talk like that?"

"I…now that you mention it, I don't know. I never pay any attention to that."

"Then it's not important. That reminds me, thanks for the help back then."

"If you want to thank you, I believe they deserved it the most." Enterprise pointed at her right shoulder.

On her right shoulder, two mini people were sitting and sharing a bucket of popcorn. They were Fairies. Nobody knew where they came from and even the Ship Girls were unsure where or why they came. What was known was that the Fairies acted as some sort of crew members from the Ship Girls. Though there were Fairies that weren't crew members but rather some sort of construction workers.

The crew member fairies were usually seen near a ship girl. There were pilot fairies, gun crew fairies, damage control fairies, etc. Basically, if a ship has that kind of crew, then it can be expected that there will be the Fairies equivalent.

Though nobody ever seen captain fairies or cook fairies.

The construction worker fairies responsible for the creation of the Ship Girls' turrets, planes, ammunition, and other necessary materials. They were quite important since the Ship Girls' equipment were basically miniaturized ship's armament, several important parts became too small for human's eyes and hands. Humans could still do it, but the fairies were more efficient and effective.

Two things that all Fairies shared were that they have young-looking face and also androgynous. It was quite hard to figure out the gender of Fairies from face alone, with the exception of few who possessed facial hair.

"Hehe, you're right, E." Cecilia bowed a little to meet face-to-face with the fairies. "Thank you for your help."

Both fairies smiled back and gave a little salute.

* * *

 **Allied HQ**

"That should be all, Air Marshall."

"Understood, Sirs."

As the higher-ups clean up the papers that they brought, Adolfine Galland walked back to her office with a dissatisfied look. Though calling her mood that was an understatement.

Their budget was being cut! Again! She knew that some of the higher-ups and politicians didn't like the fact that the Witches served in the military. This was their usual way of saying that. But this is getting ridiculous.

To make matter worse, several of the higher-ups that usually supported them back down and let their budget being cut. She will make sure that there will be a talk about this.

At first, the cut was rather normal. Nobody knew at the time how much budget the Witches needed to work effectively. So, after several months, the first cut arrived.

But then, things went downhill. The higher-ups started to look at how many weapons and bullets that average witches received, then how many of them got spend. Then they started to look at how big the salary was and how much of it got spend.

How they figured out the last one she has no idea.

Then they looked at what kind of food the Witches tend to eat and facilities that they have. She admitted that the food tended to be luxurious and so did the facilities. But they were kind of necessary to make sure the moral remained high. Most witches were quite young and some actually never have any military training in the first place.

To put it in the simplest words, the higher-ups trying to little by little cut the Witches' budget. They never seemed to be this dedicated before. And the only reason for the cut was either "you can do the same thing with less budget" or "classified".

Well, fortunately the budget was still enough for the Witches to operate effectively. But of course, several things needed to be reduced. They needed to toned down the food quality for one. Then they might need to shut down several parts of the bases to reduce the maintenance cost. Perhaps they could start with the big baths like in the 501st JFW base. They also need to find a way to make sure that only few strikers require replacement.

The existence of the 502nd JFW made Adolfine doubted they could succeed in the last one.

Oh, they also could have rationed the tea and confections. Adolfine sighed as she thought about it; she knew how much the witches like tea and confections. Reducing them will make them send a lot of complains.

* * *

 **Pearl Harbor**

After the Battle of Pearl Harbor, known as the Day of Infamy by the Liberions, reconstruction of naval base managed to went smoothly. Without any interruption from either the Neuroi or the Abyssal, Pearl could operate again after several months.

A part of Pearl Harbor, which was lonely and empty before the attack, was full of construction workers. This specific part of the base was planned to be used by a new task force to deal with the Abyssal in the Pacific Ocean.

Several miles off the shore, three ship girls were watching the constructions. The main part of the base was done few weeks ago and will be followed by the supporting parts.

"So, this is where we're going to be stationed?" Asked a woman with brown hair wearing a white dress of sort.

"Indeed, Sara. Not only us, but also ship girls from other nations." Replied the woman with umbrella, Iowa.

"By others, do you mean Fuso and Britannia?" Asked a woman as she fixed her glasses.

"Not only there, but also from Romagna and Neue Karlsland. Though we'll only received two or three ships at the most if what I heard is right." Replied Iowa.

"That's odd. Karlsland and Romagna are not known as naval power unless you're talking about the Mediterranean for the latter." Commented Saratoga

"They aren't. But every contribution is appreciated."

The three of them stop talking when they heard a horn of a ship. When they looked at the source, they saw _Akagi_ , _Kaga_ , HMS _Renown_ , HMS _Dorsetshire_ , USS _Hornet_ , USS _New Jersey_ , and other smaller ships that act as escorts.

"Looks like our guests have arrived." Declared Iowa with a small smile.

* * *

 **USS** _ **New Jersey**_

Inside an office, a woman with brown hair and green eyes wearing a naval clothing of the 18th century was looking at the papers that she just received. It looked like the budget for the Ship Girl programs will received a substantial increase. A good thing since at this moment, they were working from scratches.

They need to build a specialized base for the girls, not unlike the ones that the Witches have.

It had been discovered that the most efficient way to repair or heal Ship Girls is to submerged them in a water mixed with powders created from ship-building materials. It was actually more complicated than that, but that's the summarized version. Due to that, the base need to have a room full of bathtubs big enough so that the ship girls can submerged up to almost their neck.

There was also that fact that Ship Girls ate more than what normal humans ate. A destroyer usually ate the same portion as adult, even though some of them look like grade-schooler. A cruiser at the least ate two portions. A battleship and aircraft carrier at the least ate four portions. For auxiliary ships, the amount of the portion variates.

One thing for sure, it was better that they never found out how much food an aircraft carrier can eat. Akagi managed to eat up to 10 portions, including appetizers and desserts, and she still can eat more.

Fortunately, they were feeding Ship Girls instead of humans. Studies showed that the thing that mattered the most for the Ship Girls about food was the size instead of the taste. It was actually possible to only feed Ship Girls with the dreaded K-ration. Several ship girls volunteered to only eat K-ration for 10 days. Their performances from day 1 when compared to day 10 showed unnoticeable drops.

That's not to say that the girls won't _complain_ about that. While they didn't reject the ration, it was very clear that they would prefer eating something else.

On a minor note, aircraft carrier girls have been noted to chew on, and in some cases actually eat, a small piece of bauxite. Considering their teeth and digestion system were stronger than normal humans, this wasn't a problem. When asked about why they did that, the girls admitted that doing so give some sense of comfort.

Probably because bauxite could be used to make aluminum, which could be used to make airplanes.

The Ship Girls could refuel using two ways; either fueling their rigging or drinking it directly. Nobody knew how the latter worked, but considering that the girls complain about _very_ sore throat after doing that, it was only used in emergency.

The other thing to note was the equipment and ammunition used by the Ship Girls. Each country has their own ship armament, and this was reflected on the girls; the aircraft carrier girls from Fuso used Mitsubishi A6M "Zero", the ones from Britannia used Supermarine Seafire, and the ones from Liberion used Grumman F6F Hellcat.

While the carrier girls can be standardized, it will be more challenging for other type of Ship Girls since that means they need to modified their riggings as well. Then there was still the fact that the carrier girls might not be used with the chosen types of airplane.

Well, considering the Witches didn't have a big problem with non-standardized equipment, same thing might be possible for the Ship Girls as well.

Another quite important, but not actually contribute anything to the war effort, was the uniform. When summoned, Ship Girls usually wore clothing that more in line with civilians. Though some of them have military accessories and used school uniform in case of Fusoan destroyers. While the higher-ups decided to be rather lax in the uniform department, just like how they did the same thing with the Witches, they would prefer that the Ship Girls at least have a military uniform that they can wear in formal occasion.

Perhaps they simply need to change the lower part of navy uniform with skirt.

The woman's thoughts were interrupted when she heard the knocking sound. After giving the permission to enter, a woman with short white hair and blue eye wearing a navy uniform from the same era entered the room. Her uniform was 18th century Britannian while the brunette was 18th century Liberion. What stood the most was that one of the woman eye is blind.

"Good to see you, Lady Victory. Is there something that I could help?" Asked the brunette.

"Oh, it's not that, Lady Constitution. Just want to see if you required second hand." Replied the white-haired woman.

They were the personifications of USS _Constitution_ and HMS _Victory_ ; two of the remaining Age of Sail ships that still exist. While both of them were obviously hilariously outdated for combat, they were surprisingly good in logistic and desk jockey jobs.

Probably from spending centuries witnessing the evolutions of the navy and docking at their personal dock.

"I appreciated it, Lady Victory. There are lots of paper still needed to be signed." Said Constitution.

After hearing that, Victory put her hat on the hangers and approached an empty chair in front of Constitution. She then took out her own quill while Constitution offered Victory her ink. It was one of few things that both sail ships still do despite knowing that better alternative exist. Call it being nostalgic, will you.

"By the way, where all this budget came from? The amount seems to increase compared to the last few months." Asked Victory.

"Heard that they cut another program budget." Replied Constitution.

"Hopefully an Army program."

"It will always suck to be the Army."

* * *

 **And this chapter is done.**

 **If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.**

 **Review please!**


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